Dr. Curt Freed, right, professor of medicine and pharmacology at the University of Colorado Denver, and colleague Dr. Young-Mook Lee research the treatment of Parkinson’s disease with human stem cells. Freed said Monday that federally funded stem-cell research will help his work greatly.

Stem-cell researcher Dr. Dennis Roop was teaching a class on bioethics Monday morning when he glanced at his watch — the next 15 minutes, he told his medical students, would revitalize science.

As President Barack Obama was lifting the ban on federal money for embryonic stem-cell research, the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine professor was lecturing about the stem cells his lab has created from human skin.

Roop and other Colorado scientists — on the cusp of major breakthroughs that could someday cure Parkinson’s disease and help paralyzed people walk — celebrated the reversal of policy.

“It’s a clear signal that this administration is taking politics out of science and restoring science to its rightful place,” Roop said.

He said Obama’s executive order will invigorate research stalled under former President George W. Bush’s ban, which limited the use of taxpayer money to only the stem-cell lines produced before 2001.

Those cell lines are no longer fit for human use, perhaps degenerated after eight years in frozen storage and contaminated with animal cells, Colorado researchers said. Cell lines created since then, using private or, in some cases, state money, are now available for research with Obama’s order.

Roop, director of CU’s Charles C. Gates Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology Program, intends to compare the capabilities of stem cells created from human skin to embryonic stem cells. Within a few years, he believes, doctors will treat diseases using stem cells created from the patient’s own skin, perhaps closing the controversial chapter on embryonic stem cells.

“It’s almost limitless what you can propose to use them for,” said Roop, who believes skin stem cells could potentially cure cancer and heart disease, among other illnesses.

The stem-cell ban also slowed research by Dr. Curt Freed, who is at the forefront of developing a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

The UCD researcher has transplanted stem cells recovered from aborted fetuses into patients with Parkinson’s. He also has used stem cells to cure Parkinson’s in rats.

“These Republican presidents have taken the position that they would prefer to see tissue discarded than used to help people,” Freed said. “You basically get put on hold for a long time.”

Obama’s order — combined with the stimulus package that infuses money into the grant-making National Institutes of Health — will jump-start research at public universities in particular. Besides the new money, universities will no longer have to follow a federal rule that banned work on embryonic stem cells in the same building with any federally funded research.

The end of the ban comes at a perfect time for Dr. Stephen Davies, a UCD neurosurgery professor who is trying to cure paralysis with stem-cell transplants. Rats with spinal injuries in Davies’ lab had a 40 percent regeneration of nerve fibers within eight days of receiving stem-cell transplants, he said. He hopes to try the therapy on people soon.

“It’s great news that there is now going to be more latitude,” he said. “It’s going to create a lot of opportunities.”

Jennifer Brown is an investigative reporter for The Denver Post, where she has worked since 2005. She has written about the child welfare system, mental health, education and politics. She previously worked for The Associated Press, The Tyler Morning Telegraph in Texas, and the Hungry Horse News in Montana.

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